bendbrilliance

Hey Steve, as a columnist ifor the most influential paper in the state, I recommend you focus on things important for average Oregonians. For example, Oregon school funding this year is up over last year, yet rural school districts across the state are laying off teachers and reducing school days. Why? What can we do about it? School funding up but per pupil funding down? Wow, if I was a columnist I would be all over that. Maybe you buy the Governor's "transformative" language when it comes to the bureaucrat shuffle. Those of us out here in rural Oregon say ..huh?

Kitzhaber loves to talk about "transformative' policies. Okay. Oregon schools received higher funding than the previous biennium in an inflation flat environment. And the result? Less per pupil spending and nasty cuts to rural school districts. Why? Pers liability sucking up the budget. Kitzhaber cannot make any claim of success as governor unless he fixes this disaster. If he cannot negotiate a reasonable solution with public employee unions very soon the only other option is the nuclear one: fire all public employees and hire them with no union contracts...or..simply allow state and local governments to go bankrupt and let the courts deal with it. Whatever the path, it's a new world for taxpayer and public employees and it remains to be seen whether Kitzhaber is ready to get dirty with this issue. He was governor for 8 years and every year the budget increased 14 percent with no reforms.

Uhhh...Pearl District liberals wake up...teacher layoffs happening all across eastern, central and southern Oregon. Class sizes growing. PERS obligations and health care costs killing district budgets. Please, no more talk from Kitz or nicely paid Crew the Czar about "reform" or "transformation" until we see the funding plan that stops the bleeding. If you don't have the funding to keep classroom size under 30 kids then "reform" is a simply a fantasy by politicians and those working for them. If Rudy Crew wants to know Oregon and Oregon education, get out of the Valley. Move your family to Burns or Prineville or Baker City, or if you can handle that, Sisters, which is laying off teachers by the bucket full.

Hate to be so negative, but this is all very tiresome. A new bureaucrat hired for big bucks to "transform" schools and "change the conversation." Fact: Nothing of value will happen until the issue of FUNDING is addressed and resolved, which means serious PERS and public employee health care benefit reform. Why? Teachers across central, eastern and southern Oregon are getting laid off due to rising PERS obligations stemming partly from the failure of the PERS board to properly manage investments. Class sizes are rising, per pupil spending dropping. So, Mr. Crew's first task should be convincing Oregon Democrats and public employee unions that this drain on school budgets must stop. Hmmm. I say it will never happen and all we will see is talk talk talk, at taxpayer expense.

After all these years, Oregon has no major university a la UW, UC Berkely, Stanford, etc. UO and OSU aren't bad, just average. If Kitz wants a new economy for Oregon other than shoving little trees into biomass plants, he needs to get behind a major university system for Oregon...Eugene, Corvallis, Portland, Bend (OSU-Cascades). That will attract the Silicon Valley syndrome. (No, data server centers don't do it though they are better than nothing.)

Wow. We small business owners keep slogging along and Kitz hires a Californian for a sweet bureaucrat job with nice PERS bennies. Unfortunately, in this case, he can't do his job until the PERS burden on local school districts is addressed....and since he will be a PERS baby ...well, here we go gain. Fact: Oregon today is spending less per student than five years ago and the sole reason for this is the PERS burdent on local school district.

Nice. I agree. I get it. But aren't you or somebody at the Oregonian supposed to be writing hard a$$ columns on state government.....like how PERS is sinking local governments, or an increase in recreational gold mining is wrecking fly fishing streams with no jobs benefits, or about teacher layoffs across eastern oregon school districts, while Guv. and Leg. ignore reality? Steve, Oregon is in trouble. Budget disaster about it hit. People with money rather be in Washington than Oregon and yes business owners and weathly people are migrating. Meanwhile, the print edition of the Oregonian, once the pride of journalism in the Northwest, is so sad. I read it in the sauna after exercising and all i see is crime news and crap. So, no reason to read unless opinion columnists, you Steve, tackle the disaster known as Oregon state budget, PERS, etc. In other words, Journalism, my friend, journalism. Go for it.

Last year California banned this sort of mining for seven years because Fish and Game documented the destruction to fish. That pushed all these northern Californian miners into Oregon in a concentrated fashion and that will definitely be bad for fish. No fun wanting to enjoy the beautiful Umqua country and have to deal with noise and destruction.

The Pearl District uses more electricity in a month than Boardman does in a year. And do you know where the Pearl District's nasty garbage goes? Yep. Most of the barges on the Columbia are shipping Portland garbage to the massive Arlington dump site in Eastern Oregon. Out of sight, out of mind. So fun to pretend to be a progressive, or to be a preachy one, when someone else taking care of your crap. Eastern Oregon economy is dying. Does anyone west of Troutdale and east of Hillsboro care?

C'mon Oregonian. Make sense of this. Kitz has to cut Medicaid spending by 2 percent a year to receive this taxpayers' gift, but he has negotiated contracts with public employees increasing their wage and benefits way higher than that. Ummm. How is this pathetic beggary at the federal trough called "savings?" I am a centrist, small business owner, east of the mountains , Democrat and I see nothing but trouble with this bait and switch. Not to mention the main question: How does this create jobs in central/eastern/southern Oregon?

According to Forbes CEO Survey of states best for entreprenuers Oregon in the last year has dropped nine points to 42nd. As a small business person in Oregon my health care costs continue to be through the roof..increased premiums, giant deductibles. Am I a right winger? No. I am an east of the mountains centrist. I support a single payer health care system because it's best for small business. But all this "transformative" stuff claimed by Kitz and his girlfriend (who ironically has been the most visible "first lady" in Oregon history) means nothing to those of us on the ground in the private sector economy.

Is this a joke? Why is the nicely paid PERS governor doing this? Is his young girlfriend making him do this stuff? Is the Oregonian going to tell us if Ms. Hayes (she is not the "first lady" by any definition) is getting paid by tapayers for this stuff? She appears to be everywhere with no visible means of support. By the say, Happiness is PERS reform so local governments and school districts don't have to declare bankruptcy since taxpayers can no longer carry the burden.

As the boomer retirement wave moves toward it's peak, those with resources will not be choosing Oregon .....those already in Oregon will leave. They will not choose a high tax low service state run by politicians who live in utter fear of public employee unions. Businesses will do the same. They would prefer a western state with sales tax as part of the mix rather than high income, corporate, and inheritance taxes.

What the heck? The news out here today is that Redmond school district is $5 million short due to PERS for the next couple of years and will need to layoff teachers during rising enrollment. And Kitz has districts messing around with this crap? If Kitz wants to improve education Oregon then figure out a way to avoid firing teachers and avoid crowded classrooms. Can't do that then it's all bureaucratic crap. I say this a a centrist democrat.